November 20, 2014

I feel lucky (13)

Luz Cazares woke Tuesday morning to a loud crash and the sight of a plane's tail sticking out from the home of her neighbors, a couple in their 80s, just blocks from Midway Airport.

"A big part of the airplane was in their living room," said Cazares, 62. "I thought they were dead."

But then Cazares looked through a window and saw Raymond and Roberta Rolinskas standing in the hallway outside their bedroom, inches away from the wreckage.

"I ran to the back of the yard, I jumped the fence and I knocked on the back door of the kitchen," Cazares said. "She (Roberta) opened the door and I took her outside. She was scared. She kept asking, 'What is happening? What is happening?'" [...]

The plane went down about a quarter of a mile from the airport, crashing through the front of the Rolinskases' home and coming to rest in the living room, its tail wedged against the roof of a neighboring house. The plane hit the right side and front of the house, 8 inches from where the couple were sleeping in a bedroom on the left side of the home, according to neighbors and fire officials.

"They were in a bedroom next to the living room, and the living room is gone," Fox told reporters. "Eight inches away. They were very lucky."